Apple to Move from Intel to ARM??

[eelhead]

SemiAccurate claims to have heard that Apple will be transitioning from Intel processors to ARM processors in the not too distant future.

"The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible".

The site seems to believe that the transition will take place after ARM has moved to full 64-bit cores which won't likely be until at least mid-2013.

"At that point, Apple can move to ARM without worrying about obsoleting code with an [instruction set architecture] that is on the verge of changing, and no memory overhead worries either. Basically, it looks like the perfect time. Ironically, SemiAccurate?s moles tell us that the boys on infinite loop are planning to move laptops to ARM at about that time. Coincidence? Nope".

Apple has made a heavy investment in the ARM architecture which presently powers their iOS line of products. Apple even made the bold move to take ARM processor design in house with the acquisition P.A. Semi and Intrinsity.

Still, a transition of their Mac line over to a different processor architecture is hard to accept. While Apple did previously succeed in such a transition in the past with the PowerPC to Intel transition, it was not without an incredible amount of engineering to ease the process. Existing Mac applications would be unable to run on the new ARM processors without some sort of emulation layer. Mac applications would have to be recompiled to support the ARM processors.

While ARM is known for their low power processors, last year they announced plans to move into high-performance computing in the future, and has been rumored to moving into the 64-bit space as well.

"Codenamed "Eagle," the A15 architecture is ostensibly aimed at netbooks and tablets, but a look at the spec sheet leaves no doubt that ARM is absolutely gunning for the server market that Intel and AMD currently dominate".

SemiAccurate has not been a frequent source of Apple-related rumors, but they do point out they were correct in predicting that Apple would move away from NVIDIA GPUs in their computers.


Not being knowledgeable of the inner workings of a computer and what now to much, what does this mean if they move away from Intel possessors?
I know it's just rumors but one never knows
Article here.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/06/app ... e-laptops/

 

[brams]

Yeah and the laptops will be nuclear powered as well ;-). The chances are extremely remote at best, look at what moving to Intel has done for the Mac (Mac, Hack, OS X) scene. It was dying a slow death with PPC. Nobody is able to keep up with Intel (or AMD) in terms of CPU development. SGI dropped MIPS, HP dropped PA RISC, Apple dropped PPC and all moved to x86 CPU's. Not sure if anybody uses SPARC anymore. Between them Intel and AMD rule the home, desktop, server, HPC and workstation markets, the R&D sums spent by both companies must be staggering and I'd be surprised if anybody can keep up with them. Not unless ARM have had a major breakthrough (discovery) that is. Powering cellphones and tablets is one thing, powering workstations another.

ARM had their chance with ARM with the ARM 3 and ARM 600 (read about Acorn Computer who started ARM when they developed the Archimedes).

 

[brams]

Actually I just read Windows 8 is going to support ARM! so I might be eating what I just said!! so that should level the playing field (I hope) for the hack scene.

 

[eelhead]

Yeah I saw somewhere about Win8 running on ARM.
I don't know, they are just deciding to make desktop CPU's against two big companies (Intel,AMD) who have a major head start. What new innovative breakthrough chip could they release to secure a strong foot hold against the two? Or is it price that Apple would go that route? Cheaper supplier maybe, don't know.

 

[eelhead]

And another ARM article on Page 2,

An Arstechnica article from February outlines some of the challenges Intel has with the emerging strength of ARM processors. While Ars points out that ARM simply can't beat Intel from a performance perspective -- at least any time soon -- they also point out that they don't have to become dominant in the marketplace.

"If it turns out that the ARM ecosystem can get within a factor of two of x86 in terms of performance and performance per watt as ARM chips move to higher levels of size and complexity, and if that ecosystem can simultaneously keep the cost of ARM chips much lower than that of x86 chips, then ARM could do to x86 what x86 did to Alpha, MIPS, SPARC, PowerPC, and the other RISC workstation architectures. Intel used its process strength to get close enough to RISC workstation and server performance that the PC's status as a low-cost commodity machine gave the PC an edge. We all know how the story played out: the high-end RISC vendors were marginalized, as the lower volumes on their now-boutique chips kept their prices up; meanwhile, Intel relentlessly narrowed the performance gap and moved the PC into new markets because it was dramatically cheaper and almost as good".
via @cvaucher
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/06/why ... 86-to-win/

 

[skogmike]

Will ARM spell the end to the Hackintosh? I sure hope not.

 

[bubbaganoush]

There was a time when you have been called certifiable for believing Apple would ever go from PPC to Intel.

Regardless of how accurate this rumor may be it's not that hard to see that the industry is moving in on the tablet market. Companies have been trying to break this market since personal computing devices first became available. Apple has done it with the iPad and the rest of the industry wants their piece of the pie. As the article states, Apple has invested a lot in ARM not only that but they have also been heavily favoring their mobile platform. Devices within the broad spectrum from laptops to basic phones are all moving towards the high performance "tablet" style personal devices. Nobody can say exactly what tomorrows tech will look like but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's laptops 5 years from now look a lot more like todays iPads than laptops.

 

[bones123]

Will ARM spell the end to the Hackintosh? I sure hope not.

Well maybe for your intel box running the latest mac os when all this happens on not.. but I'm sure there will be a DIY market for ARM...

 

[iPerplexity]

Of coourse Microsoft is going to support ARM in Windows 8. They have been supporting ARM in some fashion for years. Windows CE practically lives and dies on ARM. (That is an opinion) Windows 7 unified their Desktop, Laptop, netbook, and to some extent Server code. Windows 8 will probably be a further unification of codebase.
As far as Apple supporting arm, the problem is not in the design... they already have multicore, and soon they will have 64 bit support. The problem is not the software. Linux supports ARM, and since Darwin share code (in thoery) it shouldnt take too much to have OSX support ARM... Maybe they will wait for OS11. The problem is manufacturing quantities for Desktop and server consumption, and the economy of numbers.
Intel already has the manufacturing in place, and a R&D budget that rivals the Pharmaceutical industry. There is no way Apple can produce CPU's for the same price that Intel can.

 

[Solidww]

The times they are becoming exciting and changing.